How many chickens in 165 sq ft?

[egglicious]

Hey there.

I have 165 square feet of space for my chickens, plus their coop which is 11 square feet I think and elevated off the ground. I have one standard (just lost the two other standards I had) and five bantams. I am planning on getting a couple more standards because I want decent sized eggs, which would bring me to eight chickens, five being bantams. Do you think this is enough room? I have perches and dust baths for them, lots of straw and grass clipping for them. I do let them out a lot to free range but we are leaving town for christmas for 17 days so I want to be sure they won't be too stressed. What do you guys think?

 

[VelvettFog]

Coop feels small?

Most folks on this site will tell you that you need 4 sq ft per bird (LF) in the coop and 10 sq ft in the run. Bantams half that space?

So .. 3 LF + 5 bantam = 20 sq ft in the coop and 50 outside?

So -- you certainly have the space, it just might be allocated differently. If your situation is such that the birds will never be confined to the coop -- such as your entire set up is in a barn so snow and ice will never keep your birds from exiting the coop -- then you might be in good shape.


VF

 

[egglicious]

Thanks for the reply! We don't really have a lot of snow and ice where I am. But I do plan on making part of the run kind of like a tunnel, and that will be completely shielded from any weather on all sides. Also, the entire run is covered...

 

[SteveBaz]

Quote:
Sounds nice. Project to do is better than TV any day! Right?

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from GA 11 sq. ft. Thats 3 birds.

 

[egglicious]

Quote:
Sounds nice. Project to do is better than TV any day! Right?

I wish that was true. I must admit i'm not a "project" person. My hubby does all the work.

 

[egglicious]

Quote:
I understand that many on the forum would agree with you, but I guess I am one of those people who don't believe, at least in my climate, that they need that much indoor space. They only use their coop to roost and there is tons of room for more birds in there, especially with most of them being bantams. What I'm really asking about is the run. I believe the outdoor space is the most crucial...